George Wellington Stoddard (September 30, 1895 – September 28, 1967) was an American architect. Born in Detroit, he graduated from the University of Illinois shortly before being drafted into the American Expeditionary Forces in 1917. Upon his return to the United States, he traveled to Seattle and founded the architecture and construction firm Stoddard and Son with his father. After building a variety of residential and commercial structures together, his father died in 1929, and Stoddard continued private practice under his own name. During his early career he mainly designed buildings according to the popular Moderne architectural style, but shifted towards a more experimental Modernist approach, especially after World War II.
In 1939, he was censured and temporarily suspended by the American Institute of Architects for violating AIA guidelines against advertisement due to a showcase of his work published in an architecture magazine. The same year, he partnered with a group of prominent local architects to design Yesler Terrace, the first major public housing development in Seattle. He carried out a large number of commissions in the late 1940s and 1950s, including schools and bank branches, alongside structures such as the Green Lake Aqua Theater and Memorial Stadium.
George Wellington Stoddard was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 30, 1895, to Laura and Lewis Malcolm Stoddard, a civil engineer, steamboat captain, and naval architect.[1][2] He attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, obtaining his Bachelor of Science in 1917. Due to World War I, he was drafted into the military immediately after graduation, and served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France from 1917 to 1920.[1][3]
Following the war, he settled in Seattle, Washington, with his father and founded the firm Stoddard and Son, Architects and Builders in 1920. Together, they designed and constructed a variety of buildings, including private residences, industrial plants, and apartment buildings. The elder Stoddard died in February 1929, leaving George to continue as the head of his own private practice, George Wellington Stoddard & Associates.[2][3] Stoddard's work in Seattle during the 1930s was aligned with the Moderne architecture movement, represented by buildings such as the Harlan Fairbanks Company Building (built 1931).[3] In 1935, he designed houses in the Blue Ridge subdivision for Hugh Russell Inc.[2]
Stoddard fell under intense criticism from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for a showcase in the July 1939 issue of the magazine Architecture and Design. Unlike trade magazines such as Architectural Record, Architecture and Design featured little news or information relevant to the field, with each issue showing off the work of an individual architect or firm. This violated the AIA's regulations against architectural advertisements; the Judicial Committee of the AIA characterized the magazine as an attempt to "intrigue or coerce the architect into unwittingly [falling] for allurements which lead him out of the paths of righteousness."[4] The AIA censured Stoddard and suspended him from architectural practice for three months. A member of the AIA's Washington State chapter since 1922, Stoddard wrote an apology to the institute and attempted to appeal, but the suspension was maintained.[4]
From 1939 to 1942, he partnered with architects William Aitken, J. Lister Holmes, William J. Bain, and John T. Jacobsen to design Yesler Terrace, the first racially-integrated housing project in the United States.[5][6] After World War II, Stoddard's work turned towards a more strict and experimental Modernist approach. Stoddard and his firm carried out a large number of commissions in the late 1940s and 1950s, including a number of schools and bank branches across the Seattle area, alongside the Green Lake Aqua Theater and the Memorial Stadium. In 1949, he expanded the University of Washington's Husky Stadium alongside structural engineer Sigmund Ivarsson. From 1955 to 1960, he partnered with Francis Huggard to form the firm Stoddard-Huggard & Associates. Together, they designed the Battery Street branch of the National Bank of Commerce in Seattle, Sand Point Elementary School, and an addition to Madrona Elementary School. He retired from architecture in 1960.[2][3]
Stoddard served in a number of civic organizations and boards. He was a member of the State Hospital Advisory Council Executive Committee from 1948 to 1949, the chairman of the Seattle Civic Arts Committee from 1947, and a member of the King County Educational Advisory Committee and Juvenile Advisory Committee during the early 1950s. He was also a member of the Rainier Club, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and the board of the Seattle Symphony. A senior member of the AIA, he served as the president of its Washington state chapter from 1946 to 1947.[3] He died in Seattle on September 28, 1967.[1][2]